


Bad Liars

by Just_here_for_a_laugh



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: 3rd person pov, Angst, Anxiety, Bad Liars, Bickering, Boys In Love, Espionage, Fake Dating, Fake Marriage, Finnpoe - Freeform, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, General Organa - Freeform, Idiots, Idiots in Love, Leia Organa Ships It, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nervous Finn, Nervous Poe Dameron, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not a lot though, POV Finn, POV Poe Dameron, Pining, Poe Dameron Is A Mess, Poe Dameron and his scarf, Poe Dameron is a pilot, Requited Unrequited Love, Space Mom Leia Organa, Stormpilot, The Resistance Era, They Aren't, Undercover, Unrequited Love, fake married, i love these idiots, it's all third person pronouns but you see what both of them are thinking, mentions of Alderan, the resistance, you'd think they'd be better at this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24431641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_here_for_a_laugh/pseuds/Just_here_for_a_laugh
Summary: "He's, uh, my husband!" Poe blurted out in a panic.Finn and Poe are accidentally undercover with no plan and have to think fast...but maybe they shouldn't have thought THAT fast. Now they have to pretend to be in love to a weapons dealer, and even worse pretend to be pretending to each other.
Relationships: Finn & Poe Dameron & Leia Organa, Poe Dameron & Leia Organa, Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 8
Kudos: 133





	Bad Liars

“He’s, uh, my husband!” Poe blurted out in a panic. Finn’s eyebrows shot straight up as he whipped his head around to stare at the man next to him, and Poe could feel the confusion in his friend’s eyes. He grinned even wider and nervously whispered through his teeth “Just go with it…”

  
Finn could not believe they had managed to get themselves into this ridiculous situation.

  


  


It had started out as a simple mission.

  
Poe, FInn, and Rey had been sitting around General Organa’s central planning console with the rest of Leia’s most trusted soldiers. She had called them in to discuss a possible lead obtained by one of their spies on the outer rings. Apparently there was a First Order transport vessel scheduled to pick up a shipment of handheld weapons from a dealer named Alth Karnza who ran his smuggling operation from a street market.

  
“The small clothing sale stall is a front,” Leia explained, “Karnza owns the building that the stall backs up to. He’s got it set up to look abandoned but he uses it to store the weapons he gets from his suppliers to sell to whatever highest bidder comes along. We need to get in there and figure out who those suppliers are.”

  
“We could send a small insertion team,” Rey suggested. “I can go up and argue about his merchandise, start a fight about the price he’s trying to sell his blasters for. I’ve spent my whole life negotiating with thieves, I can drag it on long enough for our people to get in and get out without him ever having the opportunity to turn around.”

  
“I like your thinking,” Leia nodded, “We will send in an insertion team but I need you on it Rey. Like you just said you know thieves and smugglers better than anyone here.” She smirked and chuckled, “well, anyone but me. You know where to look for what we need to find. Plus, we don’t want to tip him off that we know about the weapons. We’ll use the textiles front and someone else will need to cause the distraction.” The general looked at Finn and Poe. “I want you two to do it.”

  
“Of course General,” Poe responded. “If you don’t mind my asking ma’am, why us?” Leia smiled again.

  
“Because you two have a knack for getting into trouble.”

  


  


The narrow street of the market was crowded with people and awnings and carts; smells of meat, hot oil, paint, and exhaust fought and danced with one another, one taking the lead over the others only to be outdone by the next every few steps. The two men could hear nearly every sound they could imagine and couldn’t isolate and identify a single one. They walked through the rhythm and chaos of the market until they could see Karnza’s booth up ahead of them.

  
“Alright what’s the play?” asked Finn as they stopped to scope out the booth.

  
“What do you mean what’s the play?” Poe asked in response.

  
“I mean what’s the play? How are we gonna do this?”

  
“I thought you were gonna figure out the play!”

  
“Why would I figure out the play?” Finn asked in something Poe could only describe as incredulous desperation.

  
“What do you mean why would you figure out the play, you figured out the play last week!”

  
“That was because we were infiltrating a training camp, mate! I grew up in a training camp, of course I’m gonna figure out the play!” They both sighed and rubbed their faces in frustration.

  
“Okay,” Poe started, “so we don’t have a plan. That’s okay, we can do this, it’ll be fine.”

  
“No! We need to come up with a plan. What are we gonna do if they ask us what we’re doing here?” Finn asked.

  
“We’ll say we’re shopping, you know like normal people do in a market?” Poe said with a lopsided half grin that made Finn’s chest warm and his eyes roll. He looked around nervously, still not completely on board with going in blind, but he followed Poe anyway, like he always did.

  
The two walked up to the booth and began looking at some of the textiles that Karnza was selling from the little cover business. There were many scarves and handkerchiefs of varying colors and feels. Hanging from the awning were ribbons and capes, some silken, some embroidered, some jeweled; they were lovely and Poe was drawn to all of them. When the general had said textiles he had expected course shirts and rough thick pants, not fine accessories. He picked up a short white scarf with a large blue gem on one end surrounded by smaller white and golden gems and held it up to Finn.

  
“You’d look good in this,” he said, mesmerized by the cloth in his hands.

  
“Yeah, right,” laughed Finn who found the garment very much outside of his typical sense of style.

  
“No I mean it,” said Poe. You look good in everything, he thought to himself.

  
Drawing his focus back to the mission, Poe caught Karnza’s attention and began asking him all sorts of questions about the fabrics in front of them. While the pilot hadn’t been expecting fine clothing, he was actually rather prepared to ask the appropriate questions about them, having spent hours asking after Leia for stories about her adventures, including her days as princess of Alderan. He peppered in words he had heard her use to describe the lavish dresses and accessories she and other royals from around the system had worn, and adding in his natural charm and ability to hold a conversation longer than most people in their right mind could or would, he endeared himself to the weapons dealer pretty quickly. Every so often Poe would ask for Finn’s input, who would give his opinions with false confidence, agreeing with Poe’s assessment of the fabric and commenting that the embroidery on this or that scarf was very detailed. He was not as eloquent on the matter as Poe but it kept him in the conversation and divided Karnza’s attention between the two, making it less likely for him to get distracted by something (or someone) in the background or to notice any minor inconsistencies or nervous tics that one or the other of them might have. As Finn once again politely ducked out of the conversation for a bit, Karnza refocused all of his attention on Poe and grinned.

  
“Tell me friend, where did you learn about such fine textiles and clothing?”

  
“My...mother taught me,” Poe answered, figuring it was true in a way (not that he would ever tell Leia that, though he suspected she already knew). “I was always asking about her fine clothing and jewels.”

  
“Ah, wonderful! I love to hear of family passing down traditions! Your mother sounds like a lovely woman; come, have dinner at my house tonight and tell me all about her!” Karnza grinned. Poe froze. He did not want to go to the home of a weapons dealer and have dinner, and what was more was Finn had not been invited along, but this was an incredible opportunity for the Rebels to gather more intel on weapons suppliers in the region. He had to take this invitation and he had to get it extended to FInn as well.

  
“I would love to!” he lied. “We can’t wait, can we?” he said, turning to Finn. Both Finn and Karnza shared matching looks of confusion.

  
“Yeah,” Finn agreed, despite having no idea what he supposedly couldn’t wait for, and cast a suspicious glance at Poe.

  
“W-wonderful,” Karnza stammered, not entirely sure what to do with the information that Finn would apparently be joining him for dinner as well. “Um, tell me, how do you two know each other?” Poe panicked. He had to think of a good reason that he needed to bring Finn along with him to dinner that would ensure that Karnza could not think of a reason to uninvite the former storm trooper. With less than a second to think he blurted out the first semi-reasonable option he came across.

  
“He’s, uh, my husband!”

  


  


“I cannot believe you told them we were married,” Finn whispered as they walked to the house of Alth Karnza.

  
‘Just shut up will you?” Poe whispered back, “I had to get you invited to dinner and I panicked. But it worked and now we’re here and we’re just gonna have to pretend for a few hours, okay?” Finn rolled his eyes but dropped the subject. Poe was worried that his friend was angry at him, but in truth Finn was on edge because he was nervous. He’d dreamed about being married to Poe so many times, and now they had to act like he was. And that was the problem: Poe would be acting but he wouldn’t, for him the feelings were real, and he wasn’t sure how long he could pretend to pretend.

  
Walking next to him, Poe was having the same problem. He kept kicking himself for getting himself into this absurd situation. He could have said so many other things! He’s my cousin, he’s my translator, hell even he’s my espionage partner and we’re here to take you and your suppliers down would probably have put them in a less awkward situation than this! This was the nightmare scenario; he could handle being in love with his best friend because the lines were clear, they were best friends and that was enough. He was thrilled to be Finn’s best friend. But blurring those lines? And even just stepping right over them? Poe had no idea how he was going to be able to handle this.

  
They arrived at the house of Alth Karnza, who told his housekeeper that two more would be joining them for dinner. Finn noted as he watched the woman go into the kitchen to find the cook that for someone who was supposed to be a humble textiles merchant, Karnza didn’t do much to hide his wealth. Their host introduced the pair to his wife, a beautiful woman with long silky hair and a warm, bright smile. She seemed so kind and lighthearted that the two couldn’t help but wonder if she knew the true nature of her husband’s business ventures. They introduced themselves as the covers they had somewhat inadvertently established: a young wealthy couple with a love of fine accessories (who had of course left any of those valuable accessories they were so fond of at home for fear of thieves at the market). Mrs. Karnza, Lizne, smiled and remarked that she liked the scarf that Poe was wearing just fine, valuable or not. The couples continued to exchange pleasantries and small talk until soon dinner was served.

  
The meal itself was delicious, and the two rebels struggled to pace themselves after months of standard base rations. They did pretty well but every so often one of them would try a new dish and moan slightly in surprised appreciation. They would immediately blush and apologize, causing Lizne to giggle. The two couldn’t help but like her, and they could tell she had somewhat of a lively nature bubbling under her rather demure pretense. Still, it caught them both off guard when during a lull in conversation she grinned and posed a question.

  
“So, when did you two first know you were in love?” she asked playfully. Finn’s eyes widened and Poe tried valiantly not to choke.

  
“Uh,” was all Poe could get out at first, death by roasted dorsal fin avoided. He knew he ought to steer the conversation and bear the burden of the question first, having been the one to get them into this situation in the first place, but that did not make it any easier. “Well,” he laughed nervously, eliciting another smile from their hostess, “there are just so many, let me think about it.” That was not in fact a lie, it would have been difficult to narrow down a specific moment he first had feelings for Finn he thought, if this were a real hostess asking a real married guest of course. Most of Poe’s lies and time-buying fibs were manipulated truths actually, he found them much easier to tell that way. He tried to think of one to answer with, and couldn’t help but silently laugh to himself that he was doing exactly what he had said he was: trying to choose when exactly he had known he was in love with Finn. He had been struck by him the moment he met him, but being struck was not the same as falling in love he had told himself, and with the anxiety and adrenaline of the moment his feelings were bound to be heightened and askew. Then there was the moment he had first seen him at the base, alive and well, running up to him arms wide and looking so relieved. They’d both held onto each other like they were the only things in the world, both so awash with gratitude and relief that the other one had survived. When he pulled back and saw Finn wearing his jacket he was completely overcome, but he had once again told himself that what he was feeling could easily be adrenaline and excitement over Finn’s return. There were many other times he had been amazed by that brilliant smile and those kind eyes, but because of the nature of their lives they were nearly all accompanied by moments of excitement and rush that Poe had used to explain them away. Suddenly, Poe stopped and smiled. He knew which moment it had been. Which moment he had truly known, and he based his story around that.

  
“We were in a cassino,” he started, “playing a round of sabacc after a long day of negotiations with some of my mother’s old business partners. I looked over at Finn and he was staring at his cards, trying to figure out his best play, head cocked to the side a little, eyes squinted, worrying his lip without even knowing it,” he reminisced, “and I just thought ‘gosh, there’s nothing I’d rather do than sit here and watch him.’ And that’s when I knew.” Lizne cooed at the story and Alth smacked Finn’s arm across the table making some joke about sabacc, but even as he laughed with them Poe couldn’t stop thinking about that moment. In reality it had taken place in an old room at the rebel base, barely bigger than a broom closet and furnished only with a sorry excuse for a table and some boxes to serve as chairs, and they and the other players had just spent thirteen excruciating hours trying to convince an old ally of Alderan to give them some supplies for the rainy season, but to Poe it was one of the best and most important memories he had.

  
He glanced over at Finn and found his expression unreadable. His stomach dropped as he realized he might have been too obvious, that he might not have changed enough details in his lie and that Finn might have figured it out. He had wanted to be convincing for their cover, but he might have been too convincing. He was snapped out of his spiraling by Lizne’s next question, and this time it was Finn’s turn to panic.

  
“What about you?” she asked him, and Finn tried not to stutter on his nerves.

  
“Oh, um, when did, when did I first realize I was in love with Poe?” he repeated to buy himself some time. He didn’t need it to think of an answer, but to get up the gusto to say it. Lizne nodded pleasantly but not without a tiny glint of mischief in her eye, and Finn swallowed. “It was when I realized that whenever Poe would come back from an offsite venture, even if he said hello to other pilo-people, other people that we work with who intercepted him while he was walking, he always kept on going past them and came to see me first.” He swallowed again and nodded awkwardly, eyes down at the table and trying not to blush. Lizne cooed again and Finn kept his gaze fixed on the side dishes in front of him, but Poe couldn’t help but stare at Finn. He had almost sounded...serious. Finn could feel Poe’s eyes on him and he wanted to die inside. He had slipped up, nearly said pilots, there was no way Poe hadn’t caught that, hadn’t realized it was real. He was sure he had just ruined their friendship to save their cover and it killed him. He knew they would still be friends, but he was terrified that he had just destroyed a sense of closeness he wasn’t sure they could ever get back.

  


  


  
Dinner passed with more conversation of marriage and love, this time mercifully from the host and hostess, and discussion of local trade and the textile market across the sector. Both Finn and Poe made it through the meal without any major slip ups, but they both carried a sense of anxiety that they were trying to mask. After dinner they thanked their hosts and began to leave, when something unexpected happened. As they stood in the doorway saying their goodbyes, Lizne reached out and hugged them both, one man under each arm, putting her face and more importantly her mouth next to their ears.

  
“Meet me behind the house tonight, I know about him and about you,” she whispered. She pulled back and smiled liked nothing had happened, leaving them both trying to hide their surprise and confusion. They waved to the smiling couple and walked down the street, ducking into an alley as soon as they were out of sight and radioing Leia.

  
“Well then meet her behind her house tonight,” she said after they explained the situation. “The intel Rey got us is good but details directly from his wife could be invaluable. But boys,” she warned, “be careful, you have no specific time and no guarantee she actually meant what we think or that she’s telling the truth. Keep your guard up but your minds open. Got it?”

  
“Got it,” they answered in unison. They ended the call with the general and started devising a plan for different outcomes of the meeting, going in on the fly having not worked so perfectly last time. Quickly though, they snuck through a few back alleys to the back of the Karnza house, it already having been well after sunset when they left dinner. They weren’t sure exactly when Lizne was planning on meeting them, so there was nothing left to do but wait.

  
The two had been on stakeouts many times before and were typically very content to chat quietly or even sit in comfortable silence with one another, just the two of them. Tonight however, there was an uneasiness in the silence, pushing down on them instead of flowing easily between as it usually did. Finally, Finn broke it.

  
“So, when do you think she’ll be out here?” he asked, just to put something into the uneasy air.

  
“I don’t know,” Poe admitted, much for the same reason. “Probably after Alth goes to bed, but who knows when that’ll be.” Poe knew that some people went to bed soon after dinner and some preferred to stay up longer, but he had no idea if Alth Karnza saw dinner as the close of his day or the beginning of his night. Finn nodded, tossing out a yeah, and then the uncomfortable silence was back. Poe found himself wishing desperately for something to talk about, but when it finally came it was the one thing terrifying him to begin with.

  
“So, back there…” Finn started, voice unsure. Poe froze. “That was...that was all just a cover...right?” he asked. Poe felt somehow both relieved and absolutely crushed. Finn hadn’t thought he was serious which meant their friendship was safe, but it meant that he hadn’t meant what he had said either.

  
“Yeah,” Poe said, trying to pull a nonchalant laugh and more or less succeeding, “had to say something right? What kind of married couple wouldn’t know when they fell in love?”

  
“Definitely,” Finn answered with a cough to hide the break in his voice, “that’d be, crazy right?”

  
“So crazy,” Poe scoffed with another fake laugh. They both nodded to each other and sank back into themselves, thankful it was dark.

  


  


A little while later they were startled out of their sadness by a door creaking quietly open. They stood up from where they had been sitting and saw Lizne carefully come out to meet them. Closing the door and wrapping her shawl around herself, she came over to them.

  
“Sorry I’m so late, I had to wait for him to fall asleep,” she explained.

  
“It’s okay,” Finn assured her.

  
“Yeah no problem,” Poe agreed. The two rebels looked at each other before Poe once again spoke up. “So, uh, why exactly are we here?”

  
“I want to help you shut down my husband’s weapons business.”

  
“Wow, uh, okay,” Finn replied. “If you don’t mind my asking, why?”

  
“And how did you know we were here about that?” Poe interjected, to which Finn responded by pointing to his friend and nodding in agreement.

  
“He’s selling to whoever can pay the most and innocent people are getting hurt. He used to be a good man. I didn’t like the weapons but I trusted him at least. He used to sell to people fighting oppression or invasion, but after the rise of the First Order he’s lost hope. He stopped caring who bought what, and now the only thing that matters is how much money they are willing to offer him. He’s not the same man, and I can’t stand by and watch.” The two men nodded, impressed with her nuance and bravery. She sighed heavily, but then she looked up at the two and smiled the same way she had at dinner. “And as for how I knew about you two, you aren’t exactly very undercover.” The two looked at her with confusion scribbled over their faces and she laughed. “Let me guess, the Resistance?” As their looks of shock only intensified she grinned. “You’re very bad liars.” Both Finn and Poe started to sputter in indignation but the woman just put her hands on each of their shoulders and smiled sympathetically. “Trust me, as someone married to a liar and lying to a liar, I know what I’m talking about. You had the right idea though,” she added encouragingly, “sticking to a true story so you can remember it. It’s not a bad tactic, but you have to actually change it enough. Negotiations? Mysterious company you both work for but never name? Finn slipping up and almost saying pilot? My husband was too excited to see it but I spotted you from a mile away.”

  
The two tried to find a way to counter but couldn’t. Reluctantly, they conceded. Lizne smiled. “Some advice? Don’t use stories with so much emotion attached to them, it’s easier to not get lost in them that way.” She giggled, “I know that was actually my fault, I hadn’t figured it out yet, but you could have gone for a different moment instead of actually choosing the real first time you realized you were in love.” Once again Poe and Finn started talking over each other to contradict her, short nervous fragments of “We didn’t-” “It wasn’t-” “That was just-” and the like tripping over one another until Lizne sighed and smiled.

  
“Boys,” she said, silencing them, “like I said, you’re very bad liars.”

  


  


Lizne returned to the Resistance base with the team and began her debrief while the rebels all went back to their quarters. It had been a long mission and they were all exhausted, for one reason or another. Pretty soon though, Poe heard a knock at his door.

  
“Come in,” he sighed, his eyes widening as Finn entered the room. He came and sat on Poe’s bed, trying not to look at his shoes but not too keen on looking Poe in the eye either. He still couldn’t believe he’d made it out of his own room much less into Poe’s. He’d thought about doing something like this so many times, but now after what Liznehad said he felt he almost didn’t have a choice.

  
“So...back there, at dinner, with all that cover stuff…” he began. Poe swallowed thickly.

  
“Yeah?” he almost whispered.

  
“And we both said that it was just a cover…”

  
“Uh huh,” Poe responded weakly. He felt like his head was going to explode. Finn took a breath.

  
“What if...what if it hadn’t been all for cover?”

  
“Uh,” Poe said lamely, “I- I guess that would mean we had some pretty strong feelings, you know, for...for each other.” He couldn’t breathe. Finn nodded slowly and tried not to let his voice shake.

  
“And, uh, how would you...how would you feel about that?” He felt like time was moving slower than it ever had, and Poe was not helping with that. He had frozen. This was it, what it had all been leading up to. If he said the wrong thing everything could come crashing down. He was terrified. “Poe?” Finn asked, more desperate than he had meant to sound, making Poe look up instinctively. His eyes were wide, and so were Finn’s. All of a sudden he was pretty sure he knew the right answer.

  
“I think I’d be pretty happy about it.”

  


  


Hardly an hour later the alarms rang out signaling hostiles on radar and heading for the base. As everyone rushed to battle stations and Leia wondered why this couldn’t ever happen at a reasonable hour of the day, she caught a glimpse of Poe and Finn racing towards their designated positions. She turned to see which pilots Poe would round up to fly with him, only to see that the two were linked by the hands. They got to Poe’s X wing and stopped to face each other, and Leia couldn’t help but laugh when Finn, looking exactly like an excited baby fox, kissed Poe on the cheek. Equally happy and flustered, Poe did it back, surprising Finn and leaving them both grinning at each other like idiots.

  
“It’s about time!” Leia shouted across the hangar, and she laughed as both boys jumped and looked back at her with blushing smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! I don't own Star Wars or anything associated with it. Happy reading!


End file.
